One Man vs the Russian Empire: How Imam Shamil Survived 25 Years

In October 1832, a wounded man leapt over a ring of Russian bayonets in the mountain village of Gimry. For the next twenty-five years, Imam Shamil held the armies of the Tsar out of the mountains of Dagestan and Chechnya. This is how he did it, and how it ended on the mountain of Gunib in 1859. 0:00 Gimry, 1832 0:54 The Imam 1:23 The Dargo Trap 2:15 The Long Squeeze 2:29 Gunib 2:53 After Sources J. F. Baddeley, The Russian Conquest of the Caucasus (1908): the Gimry escape; Russian losses in the 1845 Dargo campaign Battle of Gimry; Battle of Dargo (1845); Battle of Ghunib; Imam Shamil (Wikipedia, and the sources they cite) Gunib strengths: a letter in Russky Arkhiv (2 Sep 1859); Mukhanov, Great Russian Encyclopedia (2008) Figures from the period vary between sources; we give the cited figure and say "about" where they disagree. Maps are drawn for this video. Terrain: Mapzen / SRTM via AWS Open Data; coastlines and rivers: Natural Earth. Battle maps of Gimry, the Dargo retreat and Gunib are schematic. Paintings and photographs (public domain, via Wikimedia Commons) ImamShamil.jpg (Sergey Lvovich Levitsky), Public domain: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Im... Imam Shamil by Vasily Timm.jpg (Vasily Timm), Public domain: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Im... Gagarin. The Meeting of General Klüke von Klügenau and Imam Shamil in 1837, 1849 sec.jpg (Grigory Gagarin), Public domain: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ga... Old Imam Shamil.jpg (Alexander Roinashvili), Public domain: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ol... The illustrated London News December 24 1859. Schamyl (front page).png (The illustrated London News), Public domain: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Th... Imam Shamil surrendered to Count Baryatinsky on August 25, 1859 by Kivshenko, Alexei Danilovich.jpg (Aleksey Kivshenko), Public domain: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Im... Dagestan-Verkhnii Gunib 1910-s 02.tif (Sergei Prokudin-Gorskii), Public domain: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Da... Взятие Дарго. Рубо.jpg (Franz Roubaud), Public domain: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%D... Даргинский поход. Подвиг 3-го бат.Апшеронского полка. рис.Рубо Ф.А. 1895г ГИМ e1.jpg (Рубо Франц (Roubaud) (1856 — 1928)), Public domain: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%D... Поход в Дарго 1845.jpg (Берже, Адольф Петрович (1828-1886)), Public domain: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%D... Франц Рубо - Переход князя Аргутинского через Кавказский хребет 1853 г.jpg (Franz Roubaud), Public domain: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%D... Франц Рубо - Перевал.jpg (Franz Roubaud), Public domain: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%D... Roubaud. Scene from Caucasian war.jpg (Franz Roubaud), Public domain: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ro... Рубо. Конец Кавказской войны.jpg (Franz Roubaud), Public domain: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%D... Portrait of Count Mikhail S. Vorontsov (1782-1856).jpg (Thomas Lawrence), Public domain: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Po...